New Adventures
by TheCrimsnFuckr
Summary: Max and Chloe both deal with the after math of Arcadia Bay. Choosing to leave it behind and go on the road trip they'd dreamed of since they were kids. Short, little one off story. It's my first so constructive criticism is appreciated. I might continue I don't know yet.


The engine roared as the ruins of Arcadia Bay fell further and further behind them. The life the had known, the people, obliterated by a choice. A choice that put the life of one before the lives of hundreds if not thousands. All for the sake of love, and Max had no regrets about this. She went through hell to save her friend, and she wasn't about to let that crazy bitch go for anything. She was going to hold on tight and fight to keep her. Chloe on the other hand lost a whole lot more. Her mother, who worked endlessly to help her daughter through the toughest challenges. Her step-father, who she had just began to care for. All this on top of just find out about the death of her best... second best friend she had ever had. She thought about all of this, all the things that people did for her and that she could do nothing to help them. And the guilt sank deeper and deeper into her until the tears couldn't be contained. She sat there silently crying while max slept, dear sweet max who had sacrificed a town for her. She would repay that debt if it was the last thing she did. She had to. But for now, she would settle for taking the girl she loved away from that hell hole. She stared out at the road, passing sign by sign eventually deciding it would be best to stop somewhere for the night. They had been driving for hours and she was tired, Max had passed out not long after leaving the city. They needed rest. She pulled off the highway and into the parking lot of a Motel 6.

"Hey there sleeping beauty, it's time to wake up I found us a motel to stay at for the night." Chloe said softly as she gently nudged Max. She slowly woke up from her car nap.

"What, how long was I out?" Max said in a groggy voice. Chloe watched as she rubbed her eyes and tried to wake up.

"Just stay there Max I got you." Chloe got out of the car before going over to Max's side of the car. She opened the passenger door and scooped up Max and she walked into the motel. Chloe set Max down in a chair so she could check them in. "You just stay right there Mad Max I'm coming back I promise." She said in a soft voice. Max responded with some incoherent babbles along the lines of "ok" before curling up in the chair and falling back asleep. Chloe could only image how exhausted Max was. The rewinds took so much out of her and she did so much to bring her back. From what max has told her so far it's a miracle Max hadn't gone into a coma. Chloe walked up to the front desk and purchased their room with some of the handicapped fund money that they still had. Her and Max both still felt bad about taking it. Max more so than Chloe, but now that the school didn't exist anymore, she figured it wasn't that big a deal anymore. She was handed the room key and she grabbed her friend and took her too the room. Chloe laid her down on the bed before crawling in with her. And as she laid down and closed her eyes the memories all came flooding back. The storm, the death, Max's choice to save her. She just grabbed on to Max and cried. Holding her close until she too fell into unconsciousness. The night wasn't any easier than the day she woke up every ten minutes because of nightmares and Max wasn't doing much better she was shaking and twitching all night. Eventually Chloe couldn't take watching it anymore. She gently shook Max awake.

"Hey Super Max, rise and shine." Max stretched

"Good morning" Max said with a yawn. "What are you doing waking me up."

"Sorry, you didn't look so good, just trying to help you out." Chloe said with a shrug "We need to get moving anyways. We have a few more hours of driving if you want to go to Seattle to see your family"

"Chloe..." Max paused "Do we need to go back to Seattle, we can go anywhere. Do you really want to just go back to my family when we could be on the road, doing what we always wanted to do since we were kids?"

"And what is that mad max?" Chloe asked as she jumped out of bed changing out of the clothes she had been wearing for the last two days.

"You are me are going to rule..." max paused as she saw Chloe start to undress. "The world, we were gonna rule the world, together."

"You're damn right we will Mad Max, together. But first we got to hit the road. We can find out a destination when we get out there if you don't want to see your parents." Chloe began pulling on her clean clothes "I just figured with what we just went through you'd want to see your family."

"You don't need to worry about me Chloe, I should be worrying about you, in fact I am." Max got up out of bed and walked over to Chloe. "You did just loose your family and your scaring me."

"Me? scaring you? Why would you say that?" Chloe asked just as she finished putting on a clean shirt.

"Will you just stop for a second, sit down and talk." Max put her hands on Chloe's shoulders and they both sat down on the bed "you're scaring me because you are acting fine"

"Because I am fine." Chloe could lie to a lot of people, but not Max.

"You know, you're a terrible liar." Max crossed her arms and stared out the window. Chloe got up and went out to get everything packed up in the truck. She leaned her head on the door of the beat up truck and lightly banged it, each time her thoughts shifting from one dead face to another, all the people who had died for her. She couldn't believe anyone would sacrifice so much for her. It hurt, but it wasn't just the guilt. There was something else gnawing at her, an aching pain in her chest. The first time she felt it was when they kissed. It was such a shock to her that she had to break off the kiss. Now she wished she hadn't. She couldn't believe it but she actually loved Max Caulfield.

Max sat in the room for a few moments before deciding she needed to get changed, and as she stood up she heard a crash against the window. She walked over to see a blue jay, dead on the window sill. _No, there's no way it's the same bird_ , she thought to herself She examined the bird and sure enough everything was the same, the coloring, the patterns. _That is so fucking strange. I guess I have to save you again little guy._ With that she held up her hand and watched as the bird began to rise off the window sill and fly backwards off into the sky. She felt a pain in the back of her head and she knew she was pushing it. She stopped the rewind and quickly opened the window just as the bird flew in. _How many times am I gonna have to save you?_ She thought about the bird as she got dressed, _maybe it was just destined to die,_ she thought. _Maybe no matter what I do the universe will have its way_.

Max walked out of the motel and quickly got into the passenger seat of the truck. Chloe was in the driver seat and ready to go. With that, they were off. They drove for a few miles before coming to an intersection. "What will it be Max? Do you want to see your family, or go on a crazy adventure with your best friend Chloe?" Max looked at her and thought, _I want to do whatever will make you happy._ So max decided test the waters a bit.

"Let's go up to Seattle, after all we've been through I just want to see my parents again." When Chloe heard this it was like a dagger to the heart, she wanted nothing more then to go on a road trip with the person she cared about the most and maybe, just maybe score a real kiss from Max. Not just a stupid dare, something real. Max could see the hurt look on Chloe's face and she knew everything Chloe was thinking. She wanted her friend all to herself. Max couldn't leave it like this so she rewound to the moment they came to the intersection.

"What will it be Max? Do you want to see your family, or go on a crazy adventure with your best friend Chloe?"

"Crazy adventure, all the way. Why don't we go to San Francisco, I might not have won the everyday heroes contest in this reality but the zeitgeist gallery still has son amazing works I'd love for you to see."

"You're the boss Max." Chloe was ecstatic, she couldn't believe it, after everything that she had put her through Max still chose her and that made her feel like a million bucks. Maybe they had a chance after all.

They drove down the highway, talking about all the fun things they would do in San Francisco. Max couldn't stop going on about the gallery but Chloe was more excited to hit the beach. "Were gonna have so much fun down there Chloe, it's going to be be like when we were kids and we get to have sleep overs ever night." The both chuckled at the thought.

"I don't know about it being like when we were kids, I mean, the last time we had a little slumber party you did try to kiss me. I don't remember that happening when we were kids." Chloe said with a smirk

"Hey! You dared me to, and then you practically begged me not to rewind it." Chloe blushed a little at that, but she stayed silent on the topic because she knew if she said any more it would require an explanation she don't want to give at the moment. The car fell into an awkward silence after that. Mile after mile they drove on, eventually conversation did pick up again. They both tried to avoid talking about the past week so they stuck to catching each other up on the last 5 years. They had talked a little about it but they had been to busy to go into much detail. Max talked about her time in Seattle and how she didn't really have a lot of friends there. She was mostly just a recluse, kinda like how she is now.

"So you didn't like Seattle then? The way you talk about it you sound so sad."

"It wasn't that I didn't like it I just didn't feel right up there, and then when I decided to come back, I just felt a pull. A force just pulling me back here, I can't explain it."

"Maybe it was the universe trying to put you where you needed to be. Back where you belong."

"What? Back in some shit hole fishing town?"

"No, back with your best friend, me. So you could help me solve that crazy mystery back in Arcadia bay." Chloe said this with small almost unnoticeable tears forming in her eyes then quietly, without hardly making a noice she said "you came back to finally give me a reason to live."

"What did you say Chloe?" Max asked while looking out the window of the truck at the setting sun.

"Nothing Max. Nothing at all." A single tear fell down her face. Why did this hurt so much? Why couldn't she just tell Max? All these questions running through her mind. All with the same answer, she was scared of rejection. Did Max kiss her on a dare or something more? Only time could tell. The day was coming to a close just as they began crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. They had been on the road for 8 hours but they had final made it. Max was taking pictures of the sunset over the harbor from the passenger seat. Chloe smiled at the sight, and she thought about the hell they could raise.

Max looked over at Chloe "We did it Chloe, we left Arcadia bay."

"Yeah, we really did." Chloe's smile kept getting wider and wider.

"Tomorrow is the beginning of our next adventure." Chloe paused "What do you say Captain Caulfield? Are you ready to take the bay?" She said in her best pirate voice

"Aye-aye Captain Price." They both laughed at their childhood humor. "So what motel are we going to stay at tonight."

"Well step-dou... my step-dad had a whole bunch of camping gear he kept in the attic. I always kept in in the truck in case me and Rachel needed to get away quick and couldn't find a place to stay. So I figured you and me" there was a pause. "Maybe we could, I don't know, camp out together." Chloe sounded nervous saying this because to her this felt like more then two friends going out into the woods on a camping trip. It felt almost like a date.

"Yeah that sounds awesome Chloe. I think that would be a lot of fun. Just you and me, roughin' it out in the woods. It sounds, relaxing."

They made it to Rob Hill Camp Ground and rented out a campsite for the night. They got a nice site right by the beach. By time they finished setting up camp the sun had long since set and they both laid down and stared up at the stars. "Chloe, you've been off this whole trip. When are you going to talk to me about what's bothering you?"

"Max I'm fine, it's just all the people, they're all dead now. We killed them." Max sat up and looked right at Chloe

"You didn't kill anyone Chloe they are all on me. I fucked with time and made that storm and I made my choice about when I wouldn't let you die, you made it very clear that it was my choice." Max got louder and more passionate as she talked. She wasn't mad at Chloe she was just upset at how Chloe was beating herself up about something that wasn't her fault. "And even if I had gone back to save you what do we know that that would have done? Screwing with time is what got us into that mess. Screwing with it again, using it as a magic undo button is not how you solve that problem. You solve it by paying the price, and the universe decided that Arcadia bay was my price to pay for MY fuck ups! Not yours!" max was in tears by the end of this rant to the point where she just slumped forward and cried into her hands. Chloe wrapped her arms around Max and let her cry into her shoulder.

"Max you went through hell to save me and I can never repay that debt. And the last couple days I've been worried that you would... reject me, because of what choosing me made you do." Chloe paused as she too was getting choked up. "But Max, you're my friend and I should have a little more faith in you, and I should trust that you won't hate me. So I guess I'll just say it. I lo..." she couldn't even get the words out before a soft gentle kiss was placed on her lips and this time, this time Chloe would get it right. She brought Max in close and they fell asleep in each other's arms. Tomorrow would be the beginning of whole new adventure.


End file.
